Life Blood
by penofjade
Summary: Elizabeth McCinnon has lived a hidden existence for over four hundred years. Born as a Life Blood, only one vampire can drink from her and survive. However, she does not know who he is...And how does Mimiko play into her story?
1. Another Life Blood

This is a story continuing, in a way, where Season One left off. Elizabeth McCinnon has hidden herself from the world very successfully for nearly four and a half centuries. However, her research has shown her that another Life Blood exists and is living in the Special Zone. Determined to find out if this is true, she heads there, intent to find this young woman. As a Life Blood, no vampire can drink her blood and survive, except one. Each Life Blood has a "partner", of sorts, who can drink their blood without harm. In fact, their blood gives the vampire increased power for a short duration. Lizzie has never found her "partner", and she's reached the point where she believes he was probably killed.

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><p>When she was seventeen, her world changed forever. The year was 1563; the city was London; the life was hers. She had just finished running an errand for her family's landlady when he grabbed her. Before she knew what was going on, his fangs were sinking into her neck. However, only a moment later, he was thrusting her away, howling. Landing on the dirty stones of the alley, she turned to see his face melting away before her very eyes.<p>

That was the day she learned she was different. That was the day her eyes were opened to a world she had not even known existed. Vampires were real. They lived all around her, but now she could sense them. And they could sense her. More came and tried to drink her blood. Every time it touched them, though, they would melt away, leaving nothing but the memory of their screams and their soulless eyes behind.

Elizabeth woke with a jerk, her hand instinctively going to her pale neck. No scars marred her skin; they never had. Every bite had disappeared almost instantly. Granted, she had not aged a single day since that first encounter. Over four hundred years had passed, and she still looked as she always had.

Shaking off the dream-memory, she slipped out of bed and walked over to her window. Her fist night in the Special Zone had been quiet and peaceful, even though the city was apparently in a mild state of panic. Kowloon children had been infiltrating the place for about a year, with random attacks happening periodically. Lizzie had taken some time away from her home in the United States, where she had settled in the mid-1800s, to see what was happening first hand.

Arriving in the city as quietly as possible, she had taken a room at a three star hotel under an assumed name. She was sure her false identity wouldn't last long, but she wasn't going to stay very long, either. Her intuition was telling her to be very careful, that something was not quiet right in the Special Zone. Her purpose was to do research, nothing more. Also, she was intent on staying as far from Cain Warlock as possible. Once, in the early twentieth century, they had met briefly and she had no desire to raise his suspicions if he should recognize her.

It would do her no good to parade her rarity before most of the Old Bloods left in existence. The humans didn't understand her either, though, which made living among them quite a challenge. As she finished getting dressed, she reflected on the last few hundred years.

When she had been bitten back in London, there were quite a number of young women, and a few young men, like her. Their blood was poison to all vampires, save one. In a way, it was as though their blood had been created especially for one person in particular, and anyone else was committing a crime in trying to drink it. Elizabeth had lived for over four centuries but had been unable to find that person who could safely drink her blood. Many had tried, but none had succeed.

With that many years behind her, she had gained a few powers of her own, which only proved that her blood would enhance whoever drank it. Turning on the sink in the small bathroom, she stared at herself in the mirror as the water rose in a spiral to calmly bathe her face. Her control of water was an interesting talent she'd discovered while she was still very young. Being a Life Blood had its perks, even though her kind were thought to be extinct. Her research had proven otherwise, however. There was at least one other Life Blood living at that very moment, and she was working in the Special Zone. Elizabeth wanted to find her, and what Elizabeth wanted, Elizabeth got. It had been that way since 1563.


	2. Red Eyes

a/n: I've edited this chapter a few times already, and it might change again. Also, I've come to realize that this story will probably end up containing quite a number of flashbacks. Elizabeth has lived for 450 years or so, after all. There are too many things which could have taken place to not touch on them.

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><p>Elizabeth stepped out into the morning, slipping her sunglasses on as she did. Her clothing was perfectly suited to blending in, which was something she had been doing quite successfully for most her life. Even while still a young child on the streets of London she had been able to move without much attention.<p>

As the city began stirring, she meandered her way down the street, searching for the nearest coffee shop. While she didn't drink the stuff, the stores themselves were great places to watch people, and surely she could find a cup of Earl Gray somewhere nearby. After going only a block or so, she came across just the place she was looking for. A little hole in the wall, it smelled like coffee beans, pastry, and people. Buying herself a cup of tea and a muffin, she sat in a corner, glancing around the shop. Calmness was almost tangible, although she could sense below that something deeper. She couldn't help but understand the people's natural unease, even during the daylight hours. While most vampires could not live in the sunlight, some of the Kowloon children were proving exceptions to that rule.

Standing after about half an hour, Lizzie left the shop and began slowly walking down the street. Crossing it, she found a path next to a canal. She always felt better when she was near water. Even in enemy territory, she knew she had a loyal friend in the liquid. It would listen to her, protect her, even hide her if it came to that. In a world where her kind were highly prized, she had learned early to both fight and run. The instincts which had helped her for so many years, however, were telling her two very different things. One side was telling her to keep herself prepared, for many in the city did not understand, and therefore did not _trust_ her kind. However, a second portion of herself, the one which had long hoped that her own vampire would come for her, seemed to be stirring, as it had not done for almost a century and a half. The first reaction she could live with, but the second merely made her confused and uncomfortable. Shaking herself, she walked on, meandering away from the canal only when a store looked especially interesting.

Elizabeth was all set to enjoy her first full day in the Special Zone, and the sun seemed perfectly willing to help her. While vampires could not drink her blood, they could still do damage to her body. She had learned that the hard way once, only a short while after the first attack in 1563. She could still remember the feel of the knife piercing her side as the man cursed her. Apparently, she had inadvertently killed his brother. Granted, if memory served her, the brother had been attacking _her_ at the time of his death. While she was now slightly more capable of defending herself, she had not been strong enough then. However, the vampire who was throwing sharp objects at her with startling accuracy didn't care about any of that. She had managed to escape the man, but only through the desperate act of covering her hands in her own blood and running straight at the man. In that instance, she had realized something which became her mantra from that tine onward. She could only survive by being the attacker. While she would never go out to hunt vampires, she would not calmly sit by while they threatened her.

A woman, another Life Blood, whom she had met in the 1590s, assured her that part of the relationship between a vampire and their Life Blood partner, was protection. As a carrier of such precious blood, she had the power to save him, but it would take many decades to gain any real defensive abilities of her own. His job would be to protect her from the outside world: other vampires and vengeful humans alike.

While she had been deep in thought, her feet had wandered of their own accord further into downtown. The sun, warm and bright, would keep most vampires off the streets, except for perhaps those truly determined Old Bloods. The very idea of an "Old Blood" made Elizabeth laugh. After all, there were vampires who could claim that title who were like babies compared to her. As a member of an extinct people, she wondered what added name she could lay claim too.

Her musings came to a quick halt, however, when she spotted someone up ahead. She could tell he was a vampire from the quite obvious aura he was giving off. Sometimes it amazed her that, prior to her attack, she had been unaware of the vibrant and powerful auras which surrounded all mythical creatures. Each vampire's colors were different, which helped her to identity them from farther off. She was glad to see that this was not one of the sleazy ones, although the high sun should have kept most of them away from the street. His presence alone would have told her he was an Old Blood, but his aura helped her to be sure. Large, pulsing slightly, it traveled from a vibrant red close to his form all the way to a blackish purple near the edges. She slowed her steps a bit to put more distance between herself and him. It wasn't Cane, but she recognized the coloring from somewhere. She wracked her brain for where it had been.

And then, as he stopped to check out a window display, it slammed into her like the ground after fall. She had only ever seen him once, and that when she was still quite young. His eyes had been glowing bright red and blood had covered him. He had already been considered old _then_, now he would be one of the oldest vampires still "living". Her observation of him had been from the black waters of a marshy lake. As the fighting had drawn closer and closer, she had sought refuge in the only place which had seemed safe: the water. He might have sensed a presence in the water, but, if he had, he had deemed it unworthy of his notice, for he passed by, his glowing eyes marking the path he traveled.

Zelman Clock was not someone she had ever thought to "run into" on the streets of any town, even the Special Zone. Falling back onto the honed instincts of a not-yet-cornered piece of prey, she moved into a nearby store. Hopefully had hadn't noticed anything suspicious. She didn't want to have to face down such a powerful vampire, but she kept her knife on hand, just in case she needed to cut her arm for some ammo. Then, she waited.

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><p>Please review. I won't beg you to, but reviews sometimes make the story better. After all, you might see something which I had not thought of. Thanks for reading!<p> 


	3. Introductions

a/n: For some reason, these chapters are stubbornly remaining fairly short. I'm very sorry about that. However, the way they are turning out seems to fit well into a chapter format, so I'm not going to mess too much with them. In this chapter, we finally begin to get into the heart of the story: Elizabeth is searching for another Life Blood, and as wolfsrainrules guessed, she might have just found it in Mimiko (not that I'm giving anything away there!).

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><p>Elizabeth stayed in the store for several minutes, watching the vampire meander down the street. She did not leave the relative safety of the building until she could discern no lingering aura in the vicinity. When she was sure the coast was clear, she emerged from the store and headed back the way she had come. Her sunny day had just lost its pleasure. She had done her research prior to traveling to the city, so she had been aware that he lived there. However, to see him casually walking down the street, alone, with that smirking, carefree expression on his face…well, her mind was having trouble storing that in the same mental folder as the glowing eyes of the blood covered predator. She might be a Life Blood, but she was still human, and her little human heart was still trying to find its proper rhythm again. Reaching up, she sighed and rubbed the area over her heart. It had been several decades since her prey instinct had kicked in like that.<p>

Looking around warily, her sunglasses shielding her eyes from the sun and passersby, she once again took the path by the canal. Truth to tell, if she didn't think it would draw attention, she'd sink into the liquid and let it carry her home. However, she couldn't shake the feeling that she was being observed, and closely, so she kept her feet firmly on dry land. Walking at a normal speed was vitally important and she remained at that speed as long as possible. About the time her muscles were beginning to cramp from the tension, a small blonde body careened into her. Grabbing hold of it, she dropped to one knee, and pushed whatever it was to arms length. Shaking her own dirty blonde hair out of her face, she looked at her attacker. What she saw almost made her laugh. He was a child, granted a vampire child, but a child none the less.

As soon as they stopped moving, he began apologizing profusely. A moment later, another voice, this one feminine, joined his. Standing back up, Elizabeth looked at the young woman who was now checking the little boy for injuries. "I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed, moving her brown eyes in Elizabeth's direction before returning to the small blonde at her side. "Kotaro, are you alright?"

Kotaro turned his wide blue eyes towards the woman and said, his voice slightly subdued, "I'm fine, Mimi, really!" It was then that he turned his eyes on Elizabeth. Bowing at the waist, he apologized, saying, "I beg pardon; I wasn't watching where I was going…"

Elizabeth smiled and bowed slightly in return. "No harm done; besides, I should have been paying more attention to what was happening around me. I'd say we're both partially to blame. Which would mean we're even!"

His face cracked into a smile, causing his blue eyes to brighten perceptibly. "I'm Kotaro, and this is Mimi! What's your name?"

As he introduced them, Mimi reached her hand out to shake Elizabeth's. "I'm…" She was about to give her assumed name when her hand met Mimi's. As her skin touched the young woman's, she finished with the truth. "Elizabeth. My name's Elizabeth. I've been looking for you, Mimi."

The girl's eyes widened a bit as they met Elizabeth's. "Me? You've been looking for me?"

Elizabeth nodded and then asked, as calmly as she could, "Is there a place where we can talk? I don't have a good feeling about being out in the open at this exact moment…"

Mimi was obviously concerned, for there was look of slightly distrust in her eyes. "I promise you no harm, Mimi, only we _must_ get out of sight. Now."

She watched as the girl made a silent decision and then followed her as they moved quickly away from the canal. In a few minutes, they were standing at the door of a warehouse-like building, as Mimi worked the lock. Entering the space, Elizabeth felt the sensation of being watched dissipate, her skin no longer crawling.

Before she could say anything more, however, a tall shadow fell over her and she spun around. Another vampire stood not three feet from her. What scared her was that she hadn't heard him or felt him coming. One moment, it was just the three of them, the next, there he was.

"Jiro!" came the loud and happy voice of the small blonde vampire as he ran around her and clung to the man's leg.

A gloved hand patted the boy on the head as the man's gaze traveled to Mimi. "What have we here?"

Mimi introduced her, saying, "Elizabeth, this is Jiro. He's my partner. Jiro this is Elizabeth, and she says she's come here looking for…OH!"

Before she could finish, Elizabeth did something unthinkable. She fainted.

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><p>Thanks for those who are reviewing this story ^.^ Sometimes it's nice to know what other people think, especially if they like it!<p> 


	4. Explanations

A/N: More Black Blood Brother goodness! Now that Elizabeth is done fainting, we can back to the story. In this chapter, Elizabeth explains a little more about what being a Life Blood means, although Jiro and Mimi aren't quite sure what to think about the whole thing...

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><p>When Elizabeth woke up, she was lying on a couch with a worried Kotaro gazing down at her. Blinking a few times, she reached up and found a damp cloth on her forehead. The young vampire explained as she sat up, "We weren't sure what was wrong, so we just tried to make you comfortable. Are you alright now?"<p>

Rubbing her forehead a little, still not really sure what had happened, she said, smiling a little at his hopeful expression, "I think so…What happened exactly?"

"You fainted," came Mimi's voice from her left. Looking over at the young woman, she saw a cup of something warm heading her way. Sighing, she accepted what proved to be tea with another smile.

"I'm sorry…I can honestly never remember fainting before. Which is saying something," she blew on the liquid, just because she liked the ritual. If she'd wanted, she could have cooled it to the perfect temperature with no effort at all.

"Elizabeth, if you don't mind my asking, why did you want to speak to me so badly?" Mimi was obviously not the only one wanting to know. Kotaro perched himself on the arm of the couch expectantly, while she could see the tall form of Jiro leaning against the wall behind her hostess.

"Well…"she started, running one hand through her white blond hair, "It's a little hard to explain, actually. I mean, I suppose I should start by asking you - well, you and Jiro, both a question."

They waited patiently.

"Have either of you ever heard the term 'Life Blood'?" Her eyes, dark sapphire blue, moved back and forth between the girl and the vampire. Neither showed any sign of recognizing it, so she plowed ahead, starting with some basics. "In that case, allow me to first explain what that means. A Life Blood is a human, male or female, who is born with a particular purpose, namely to feed one, and only one, vampire. If another vampire attempts to feed on their blood, it will kill them…quickly. Also, the blood need not be ingested to do damage. Getting the blood of such a human on you, as a vampire, can lead to sever burns. If enough comes in contact with them, it, too, can kill. However, when a Life Blood and their vampire partner meet, the blood will not only be digestible, it will also grant extra strength and power. Does that make sense?"

Mimi's face was pale, her soft brown eyes wide and staring. Jiro, who Mimi could not see, was staring at the back of her head as though he thought it might pop off at any moment. Kotaro, who had been swinging his legs, stopped and asked, "So Mimi's Jiro's Life Blood?"

At his question, Mimi's face turned bright red and Jiro stiffened. Elizabeth wasn't sure if his response was due to the young boy's question or because the brunette's heart race had just sped up. Either way, Elizabeth said, "I believe so."

Jiro, who had yet to actually speak to their guest, pushed off the wall at her statement and demanded, "How in the world would you know that? I've never even heard of 'Life Bloods' before! This all sounds like some - Are you working with the Kowloon?"

She could tell that he was flustered and upset, although why, she didn't know. However, she did not appreciate his last comment. Bristling, she sat up straight in her seat, set her now empty tea cup down calmly, and then fixed him with a stare befitting her advanced age. "Jiro Mochizuki, I do not appreciate such nasty insinuations. I honestly don't care if you've never heard of us before; you are less than two hundred years old. I, however, fist saw the sun in the 1500s. I would ask that you remember this! Vampires and Life Bloods have lived on this earth for many years longer than you."

Her brief rant seemed to set him back on his heels, for his dark eyes widened a bit as he stared at her.

Kotaro spoke before he could, "You've been alive that long? But you aren't a vampire."

Looking over at him, she smiled again. It seemed impossible to be near the boy and not smile. "No, I'm not."

"So, you're a Life Blood?" came Mimi's faint voice.

Turning her attention back in her direction, she said, "I am."

"Do you have a…partner?" Jiro made a noise as Mimi said that word. He was having a hard time with this, Elizabeth could tell. Mimi was still in shock, but her vampire seemed ready to actually fight it, apparently.

"No…I don't."

"How come?" was Kotaro's query.

"We've never found each other," she said, her smile a little sad this time. "In fact," she continued, "I don't think we ever will. Not long after I was first bitten there were many vampires who died at the hands of hunters." She shrugged as nonchalantly as she could. "After three hundred years or so, I put it up as a lost cause. More than likely, he died."

Mimi moved from her seat to the couch and said, picking up and holding Elizabeth's hands in her own, "I'm so sorry…I can't imagine how that must feel. To know there's someone just for you yet never be able to find him." Tears swam in the girl's eyes. Elizabeth could tell she was still trying to process the news but that her caring nature wouldn't allow her to block out what she'd just heard.

Before the blonde could respond, Jiro disappeared from view. Startled, the other three stood up and walked around the chair Mimi had just vacated. He was sitting cross-legged on the floor, his head down, his body slightly limp. Kotaro moved closer until he could peer under the man's hat brim.

Glancing back over his shoulder, his eyes wide, he said, "I think he might be sick."

A mumbling sound came from the seated vampire, and they all leaned closer to hear what he was saying. Elizabeth thought she could hear him muttering, "This can't be happening. It's just a bad dream. Life Bloods? There's no way I have a Life Blood. This blood's not even mine. What am I going to do? I'm going to -" His head suddenly shot back and she was met by a pair of rather terrified eyes. "What happens if I die?"

"Well, you're companions, so I imagine it would be a little…hard for her. But you're a vampire. So long as you're careful, you won't have too much to worry about. And she won't age anymore, so everything should be fine!" However, as she was speaking, she could see a dawning comprehension on Mimi's face as Jiro's head sank once more.

She and Kotaro were left looking at each other, quizzical expressions on their faces, as Jiro began mumbling again and Mimi stared into space. They were obviously missing something, but neither of the other two seemed in any condition to share what that was.

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><p>Please feed me...Reviews fill my tummy and make me happy ^.^<p> 


	5. Even in the Special Zone

A/N: The more I think about this chapter, the more possibilities I see...Yes, I know, that is cryptic and unnecessary information, but, just putting it out there - This chapter might contain some important happenings *whistlehumwhistle*

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><p>Elizabeth stood, looking back and forth between the Life Blood and her vampire, for several moments. Neither moved. They were both still breathing, which was a good sign. Reverting back to her British upbringing, she said, "Well...I think I'll go make us all some tea."<p>

Leaving the room, she located the kitchen and put together a few cups and saucers. Putting water into the tea kettle, she had the water heat up as she took everything to the others. Everyone was still as she had left them, although Kotaro was now squatting down next to Jiro, staring at him worriedly. At her reappearance, he looked her way and shook his head. The two of them sat down together on the couch and drank the tea.

Not long after they had finished, the phone rang. Kotaro got up to answer it, talking to the person on the line for minute, then carrying the receiver to Mimi. Tapping her arm, he said, "Mimi, it's for you. We have an assignment."

The brunette blinked a few times, looking down at the little blond boy before taking the phone from him. She moved slowly out of the room, talking in a soft voice. Elizabeth wondered if she'd even remember the call after she'd hung up. She didn't seem quite all there. Something the older Life Blood had said had apparently triggered a strong reaction. What it was, she didn't know. She thought about questioning Kotaro, but he didn't look like he'd have the answer either.

Shrugging, she said to the younger vampire, "I think I should probably go. I'd like to come back, however, just in case I can help answer any questions they might have. We aren't very common anymore, so we've kind of become an urban legend. Do you think they'd let me?"

Kotaro glanced over towards the slumped figure of Jiro. "Well, you can come visit me!" He was pleased with his plan. "That way they can't tell you no."

Nodding, Elizabeth stood and walked over to the door, walking past a window to get there. Turning her head, she stopped in mid-stride. "How long was I out for?" came her startled question. The sky outside the building was already nearing the blue of late twilight. While she knew the Special Zone was safer than other places, she still didn't want to walk around it after dark. Sighing, she waved goodbye to Kotaro, saying she'd come back soon.

Setting off down the street, she began wishing for the canal. That, though, would take her farther from the hotel, making her time spent in the dark even longer. Deciding to brave the dry streets, she hurried along, not running but definitely not strolling, either. Nearing a quiet, residential street, she could feel the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. 'Not now,' was her only thought, as the feeling got even stronger. 'Not here, please not here.'

Her pleas went unheeded. As she rounded a corner, a group of four vampires appeared in front of her, with another three now at her back. 'Why me?' she asked the heavens, receiving no answer. It had always been this way. Other Life Bloods had been a little shocked at how many attacks she suffered. Apparently, being ganged up on by a dozen vampires was not normal for them.

Pulling her knife out, she readied herself for the bites. One of the vampires, seeing the small blade, let out a mocking laugh. "Oh look boys, the kitten has claws. Don't worry kitty cat, this shouldn't hurt a bit!"

With that declaration, he launched himself at her. Grabbing her shoulder, he went for her throat. As his fangs sank into her neck, she drew a line down her left arm with the knife. Pain, she'd always felt pain. Others talked about the pleasure a vampire's bite elicited. She'd always snorted at the thought. It _hurt_! As the blood hit his throat, he shoved her away, howling. As he collapsed, one of his friends sank his teeth into her wrist. He didn't last long, either. As the next few came at her, she swung her now bloody arm in an arch, using the water in the blood to propel it towards them.

She'd been in more battles of this nature than she cared to contemplate. There was a reason she lived in the mountains, away from cities and other places where humans, and vampires, gathered. She was getting fed up with not being able to even walk down a city street in the evening without being set upon.

Three of the group managed to bite her, dying in agony as her blood swept through their bodies. The rest all lay moaning and burned on the ground at her feet. Glancing toward the pile of ash which had once been the mouthy vampire, she said, drawing her blood off the small blade, "Shouldn't hurt, huh?"

Moving away from the scene, she shook her head a few times to clear it. Her blood levels had gone down dealing with that many. Sighing, she reprimanded herself for not just using water vapor on them. She tended to resort, in a fight, to her first instinct. Long before she'd learned to handle water, she'd used her blood as protection against vampires. Granted, it would do little against humans, but she knew how to keep them from getting too suspicious.

Rubbing her arm, she began lightly jogging towards her hotel. She had pulled all the blood from her clothing, but her arm was still seeping a bit of the stuff. She healed fairly quickly, and she did not scar, but the bigger and deeper the gash, the longer it took. Now that she'd found Mimi, maybe it would just be best to go back to the U.S. and leave this place alone. Her home up in the mountains was sounding better and better.

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><p>Will write for reviews ^.^<p> 


	6. In the Tower

A/N: I had to make a few things up for this chapter, since I didn't know where exactly Sei lives. I looked for it all over the place, but it just wasn't there. Anyway, this chapter brings us that much closer to her eventual meeting with Zelman. I decided to have it play out like this because she needed to be in a weak moment at some point. Hope you enjoy!

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><p>Sneaking back into her hotel, she plopped down on the edge of the bed and watched as the gash on her arm slowly knit itself back together. It was still strange, even after four centuries, to see how quickly she could heal. While it was nothing compared to a vampire's abilities, it was still much faster than any normal human could repair themselves.<p>

After the wound had finished closing, she lay back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. Her alias would not keep her safe if the vampire community came looking for her. Granted, she had been set upon, but that still wouldn't account for three piles of ash in the middle of the sidewalk, or for the nasty burns the other four would sport for quite some time. She was just trying to decide which airline to call for a morning flight back to the states when a knock sounded at the door. Jerking her head around, she stared at it for a moment before slowly standing and moving silently in that direction. She could sense, just barely, a vampric aura on the other side. However, before she could reach it, the door swung open, revealing a little girl with red hair and the unmistakable eyes of a Kowloon. As Elizabeth froze, the child smiled, revealing two pointed canines before she lunged. They grappled for a moment, Elizabeth still a little weak from the earlier fight. Before she could stop her, the girl's fangs had sunk into her left shoulder, piercing through her shirt.

As the girl began burning, Elizabeth felt an intense shot of pain through that shoulder and down into her arm. Before the child was even fully destroyed, the Life Blood was out of the room, using the fire escape outside her window to descend to the ground below. Heading back towards Mimi's, she only hoped she'd make it without another attack. She was in no state to fight off more vampires. Because it was so late, and the bite was acting strangely, she decided to make for the canal. Reaching it, she didn't stop, but jumped straight into the water. As it closed over her head, she pushed the liquid around until it was moving her in the right direction. When she'd reached the nearest point to her destination, she used the water to launch herself back onto the canal path. Dry as a bone, she began running, holding her now throbbing shoulder. She was very concerned about the fact that she had just been bitten by a Kowloon child, not knowing what such a bite would do to her.

As she reached their street, she saw the lit windows of the warehouse-like building half a block down. Panting, she hit the door, collapsing on the floor as it swung open under her weight. She heard Kotaro shouting her name as she started to black out from the pain. She'd been bitten too many times to count, but nothing had ever felt like this...It was like red hot pokers were sticking her in the shoulder over and over and over again. The last thing she saw before the blessed darkness swept over her completely was the confused and frightened face of her fellow Life Blood.

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><p>She was later told what her entrance had led to. Apparently, her wound was still bleeding, so neither Kotaro nor Jiro could touch her, for fear of getting her blood on them. Because of this, Mimi sent Jiro to call Cain Warlock. If she had been awake during this, she would raised extreme objections to getting any other vampire involved. She was supposed to be there secretly, after all. As it was, she had no say, due to her pain-induced unconsciousness. Jiro, apparently, gave Cain few options, telling him only that a young woman had been attacked by a vampire. After arguing with the older vampire for a minute or two, Mimi walked over and took the phone from him, saying calmly into the receiver that the girl claimed to be a Life Blood. Cain hung up and arrived only a few minutes later with a group from the Marine Bank. Mimi had not moved Elizabeth from where she had fallen. Telling all his vampires to stay back, he directed a human to pick her up.<p>

So it was that she woke up several hours later, her shoulder still screaming at her, in a darkened, unidentifiable room. Panicking slightly, she sat up, placing her hand over the now bandaged mark, and then moving to get out of the bed she'd been placed in. Heading towards the door, she hoped that it was unlocked. She'd been shut away in too many rooms over the years to enjoy the prospect of facing it again. To her relief, it opened easily into what looked like an unused sitting room. Checking for auras and not sensing any especially close by, she made her way over to the long wall on her left. A bank of windows showed her where she was. High up, apparently, was her first thought as she gazed out over the Special Zone. This must be the tower near the middle of town, she mused to herself, trying to gauge how high she actually was.

It was while she was thus occupied that she felt a group of vampires nearing the door on the far side of the room. Gathering her strength, which was still lower than it should have been, she waited. Hopefully, they were friendly vampires this time.

When the door opened, she found herself facing The Blue Wolf himself. She watched as he bowed slightly in her direction, saying as he did so, "My name is Cain Warlock, Miss Patterson. I came to let you know that Lord Sei wishes to speak with you, if you feel well enough."

Elizabeth didn't say anything, refusing to drop her guard. The majority of vampires who had ever truly been nice to her before had been bonded to a Life Blood. Cain Warlock, so far as she knew, was not among that small number.

He could obviously see her distrust, so he stepped back from the door, his men doing likewise. Waving towards the now unblocked opening, he said, "I can assure you that no one will attack you here. If you will walk this way?"

Finally deciding that she really did have no other choice, she followed him into the hallway. Rubbing her arms as she tried to ignore the shooting pain in her shoulder, she wondered what would happen now. It had been almost three hundred years since she had been in the presence of so many vampires, and she wasn't feeling too happy about it. Knowing she had been bit by a Kowloon, she wanted to know what they would do when they found out. It was moments like this when she really wished her partner was there to help her...She hated facing things like this alone.

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><p>Please review! You have no idea how much I love reading them ^.^<p> 


	7. A Meeting of the Minds

A/N: And so it begins. My eyes were beginning to drift shut when I wrote this, so if something seems out of place, I blame that. I will check over it again, so it might change a bit. However, I really like how I ended this chapter ^.^ How will they react to her reveal? What will Mimi think? Or Jiro, for that matter? Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. Zelman finally makes an actual appearance, although he isn't being very nice to Elizabeth yet. I have a feeling that will change though!

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><p>As she neared their destination, Elizabeth began sensing several very strong auras. Cain himself was not lacking in a vibrant collection of color, but what she felt nearly had her stopping in the middle of the hallway. Her prey instinct was attempting, again, to make her turn tail and run. Where too, she did not know. The only thing that seemed to matter at that moment was that she not continue forward. However, being surrounded as she was by vampires, her progress continued on without interruption. The cause of her discomfort quickly became apparent.<p>

Cain pushed open a large set of doors, revealing what seemed to be a conference room. She did not walk forward, towards the vampires there represented. Instead, she stopped only a few feet into the room. Without having to be told, she recognized Sei, whose aura was a soft green and gold, very calming to look at even though it was full of a power she could only guesstimate. The other major aura in the space, however, nearly made her bolt. Here was the cause for her earlier panic. His red hair hid under a stocking cap, but his equally red eyes were staring at her suspiciously. She refused to look into them, for she knew what Old Bloods could do with their eyes.

Keeping her vision fixed firmly on a point on the back wall, she waited. Zelman said nothing, but Sei seemed determined to set her at her ease. "I am very sorry that you had to be brought here under such circumstances, Miss Patterson. We understand that you must be upset over what has happened to you..."

Before he got any farther, she sighed, realizing that she needed to correct his false assumption as to who she was. "I do not mean to interrupt, but my name is not Patterson. It's McCinnon. Elizabeth McCinnon."

Sei did not act too surprised, but then he had a small pair of sunglasses on, so she couldn't see his eyes. She had learned that the only way to truly read someone was to see how what their eyes reflected. Granted, that didn't always work well with vampires...If you looked into their eyes too long, they could gain some semblance of control over you. He asked her, "Why would you enter the Special Zone under an assumed name, Miss McCinnon?"

Her shoulder was still throbbing, to the point where she could feel the blood pumping through her arm. Trying her best to ignore it, she said, "I honestly didn't want a lot of people knowing I was here. I was just in the process of getting a flight home when I was attacked."

"Which attack would that be, again?" came the soft voice of Zelman Clock. "After all, the scene of an earlier fight had your scent all over it...But then, we found ashes in your hotel room, as well. Do you make a habit of killing vampires?"

His voice made the hair on the back of her neck stand up and her hands clench where they were holding her elbows. Keeping her eyes locked in place on the wall, she said, working hard not to add ice to her tone, "Not in the way you mean, no."

She could hear Cain gearing up for an argument with the Crimson-Eyed Butcher, but Sei stopped him with a raised hand. "Zelman, do you not know what Miss McCinnon is?"

"She smells like a human...Why, is she something special?"

The boy sighed, saying softly and with feeling, "She's a _Life Blood_."

She heard Zelman suck in a breath through his nose. Risking a quick glance towards him, she could see that he was staring at Sei incredulously. "That's impossible!" he spat. "There hasn't been a reported Life Blood for over two hundred years!"

Before Sei could say anything else, Elizabeth shifted and said, "I can assure you, I've been around much longer than that."

Here, all three Old Bloods looked in her direction. "How old are you?" was Cain's question, before he tried answering it himself. "Three hundred?"

"I was born in the year 1544, and then bitten for the first time in 1561. I was seventeen." She tried to focus on anything but her shoulder, but it really was hurting quite persistently.

"That means you're over four hundred and fifty years old!" came Cain's incredulous response. "How is that possible? And where's your partner?"

Oh, how she hated that question. It always made her feel less for not having one. As though she were only half a woman because her stupid vampire partner had never shown up. "I don't have one," she bit out, hoping he would take the hint and drop it.

He didn't. "But, how have you survived this long? Life Bloods are stronger than other humans, and they supposedly have great healing abilities, but those who were alone for too long never seemed to last more than a few years ..."

He finally got the point and closed his mouth when her eyes met his. They were now a startling electric blue, shining oddly as the temperature in the room dropped below freezing. Emphasizing her words, so that he wouldn't miss anything, she said, completely forgetting the presence of the other two for the moment, "I learned how to protect myself. He didn't show up and he didn't show up and he didn't bloody show up!" Her voice slipped back into the accent of her youth as she continued. "After the second time being stabbed through the heart, I bleeding taught myself how survive." She didn't raise her voice, but neither did she raise the temperature. A pitcher of water, which had been sitting on a small table beside Sei, frosted and then froze solid. Forcing herself to calm down, she allowed the cold to dissipate and her accent to retreat, once again fixing her gaze on the wall. "I don't appreciate being stabbed, after all...Especially when I have to pull the spear out of my own chest while it's stubbornly remaining stuck in the wall behind me."

At the small display of her powers, Sei had cocked his head slightly, not really focusing _on_ her so much as _through _her. After a moment or two of silence, he said, "I see...So you've come here for a reason then? It seems to me that you would have preferred to not enter such a place without due cause."

Hesitating for a moment, she sighed and said, her arms now crossed over chest, partially to relieve pressure on her wound. "A Life Blood is able to recognize other Life Bloods. It's been over a century and a half since I've been in the presence of another, and he was dying at that point. I suppose you could say that I had a premonition, if you believe in such things. As for me, I only know that I felt the Special Zone was hiding something important from me. So I traveled here to find out what it was..."

"Did you find what you were looking for?" asked Sei, his small hands resting calmly in his lap.

"Yes," was her answer. Silence reigned for a minute or so. Finally, she turned to face the boy completely. Keeping her voice as composed as possible, she asked him, "Did you know you have a new Life Blood living in this city?"

His face did not show any sign of emotion. Quietly, he murmured, "And who would that be?"

"The Compromiser, Mimiko Katsuragi."

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><p>Reviewing will get you a cookie (a big virtual chocolate cookie is waiting just for you ^.^)<p> 


	8. Interview with Miss Shiromine

A/N: Sayuka is sent to talk to Elizabeth. I know where this story is going, so please be patient with me. I personally hate reading things where no storyline or plot is established until _after_ the two main characters figure out they like one another. Bearing that in mind, this will eventually turn into a romantic story, but, until then, Elizabeth and Zelman are not the greatest of friends. She doesn't trust him and he has no idea what to make of her. Just think of it as tension leading to an eventual romance. Thanks so much for reading!

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><p>Apparently, Elizabeth was not going to be allowed to leave the Special Zone. In fact, Cain informed her, after returning her to the set of rooms she had awoken in, that she would not be leaving the tower at all. When she demanded to know why, he bowed slightly to her, explaining, "Lord Sei does not believe it is safe for you to wander among the younger vampires...And you have been bitten by a Kowloon children. Please understand that you going to be under surveillance for the time being. We do not know how their bite will affect you."<p>

She thought, rather immaturely she supposed, that perhaps she shouldn't have mentioned the fact that a Kowloon had bitten her. Then again, how else was she going to explain to them why she, a Life Blood, had a wound that would not heal. Sighing, she watched as he left the room, sinking down onto one of the couches provided. Once again, she was trapped, held captive by vampires. She didn't know which was worse, the younger vampires who kept trying to bite her or the Old Bloods who thought she was a puzzle to figure out.

After a few minutes had passed, she rose and poked her head through another of the doors leading into the living room. The bathroom which she found was pleasantly surprising. Having been born so long before modern plumbing, she was still excessively grateful for the human who had invented it. Entering, she pulled her ruined shirt off, hoping that she could have someone retrieve her bag from the hotel. Until then, she would have to continue walking around in a shirt with an obvious bite mark and a fair amount of dried blood on the right shoulder. Setting the fabric aside, she approached the mirror. Removing the bandage, she saw, to her horror, that the mark was not only still there, but the bruise around it was now covering over half her shoulder.

No mark had ever stayed on her body for more than a few minutes since that day in the 1560s. She couldn't remember ever having seen something so ugly marring her skin before, even prior to being bitten. The bite itself was still seeping slight amounts of blood. She wondered what would happen if she froze the blood near the wound. If nothing else, it would keep more of it from leaving her body.

Reaching out to the water in her blood, she waited. Nothing happened. Well, a few ice crystals formed on her arm, but they soon melted away. While she had been horrified at the appearance of the wound, she was quickly becoming terrified at its potential. Forcing herself to think logically, she thought through why her powers might be on the fritz. There were only two options which she could think of. The first was that her body was putting so much energy into fighting the infection of the bite that it couldn't spare any for her other powers, while the second was that she had lost enough blood so as to render her much weaker- period. Either option was not good... Maybe it _was_ alright after all that they were keeping her locked away in the tower for awhile.

Turning away from the mirror, she hunted through a few cabinets, finally coming up with a few bandages and some adhesive tape. Re-wrapping her shoulder, she tugged the shirt back on, wincing as the wound pulled a bit.

Reentering the living room, she saw that someone must have read her mind, for her travel bag was sitting just inside the hallway door. Walking over, she picked it up and went to change her clothes. She would worry about a shower later. At the moment, she didn't really want to have to wash the bite mark...It was going to hurt even worse, which she wasn't looking forward to.

Several hours later, she looked up as an aura approached her door. It was a human, which both surprised her and yet didn't surprise her. The men who had been with Cain earlier in the day had also been humans. As of that point, she hadn't seen one young vampire, which was probably a good thing. For some reason, they seemed to react very violently to her presence. She had never quite discovered why, although she hypothesised that they could sense something in her that the Old Bloods just ignored. Maybe it was the potential power her blood held for her partner that called to them. Either way, she was rather glad not to have to deal with any of them at the moment.

At the knock, she called out that it was open. As the door swung open, she was greeted by a woman in her late mid-twenties who had a pair of glasses perched primly on her nose. Dressed in a business ensemble, she had obviously not come for a social call.

Inclining her head slightly, she greeted Elizabeth with, "My name is Sayuka Shiromine and I've come to ask you a few questions."

"Who are you asking for?" was the Life Blood's blunt response. She knew better than to trust most humans who worked for vampires. Having met quiet a few who were rather addicted to the bite of the preternatural beings, she was not about to just start giving away information about herself.

"I come at the request of Lord Zelman, although the information I gather will go to Sei and Cain, as well," she intoned, a thin layer of ice forming in her voice.

If Elizabeth had been in peek form, she would have shown her what real ice felt like, but, weak as she was, that would just have to wait. "What exactly does he want to know?"

Sayuka opened the portfolio she had with her, scanned it briefly, then said, "What type of reactions have you had to the Kowloon bite?"

Elizabeth stared at her blankly for a moment or two, waiting for the woman to look up from the paper. Her pen was still posed there, but she finally met the older woman's gaze. "Reaction? That sounds so scientific...As though it were a fun little experiment we were all participating in."

The other woman's eyes narrowed slightly as she opened her to mouth to defend her boss. _Yep..._Elizabeth thought to herself. _She's definitely a tad addicted to him_.

Before she could get started, Elizabeth flashed her the iciest gaze she could with the pain distracting her. "Don't defend him to me, young lady. I'm not in the mood for hearing you list the positive qualities of a man who aptly earned the nickname the "Crimson-Eyed Butcher". As for the answer to your question, it has still not healed, which worries me. I have never before experienced something like this."

"And how many times have you been bitten in the past?" Sayuka had pulled back just a bit when Elizabeth's gaze racked over her.

"What exactly did he tell you about me, Miss Shiromine?" Elizabeth questioned, ignoring her inquiry for the moment.

The woman seemed taken aback slightly. "He explained that you were a type of human known as a "Life Blood", which meant you held a certain position in vampire hierarchy. He did not go into detail about what a "Life Blood" is, however."

"And you, being the polite and professional person that you are, did not ask." Standing, she moved towards the windows. Without turning, she said, "A Life Blood, Miss Shiromine, is someone whose blood can kill any vampire, save one, who drinks it. It can also burn on contact. As to how many times I've been bitten, that would be hard to say, seeing that I've been alive since the 1540s." Glancing over her shoulder, she saw the young woman staring at her incredulously.

"How does...one become a Life Blood?" she asked, giving her own question now and not one handed to her by her employer.

"You're bitten...If your blood kills the vampire who bites you or grants him amazing powers, then you are a Life Blood. Seeing that you've been willingly allowing Zelman to drink from you without any obvious affects on his end, you are not one of my kind."

As the secretary stood to take her leave, Elizabeth allowed some of her cold attitude to recede just a tad. "Sayuka, be glad you aren't one of us...Living as a Life Blood is much more dangerous than living as a normal human, even one as attached to a vampire as you are."

When she was alone once again, she returned to her seat on the couch. Curling up in one corner, she fell asleep, hoping that when she woke up the bite would have been taken care of and her powers would be back. She didn't like feeling this vulnerable, especially when she was surrounded by so very many powerful vampires.

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><p>Reviews are better than caffeine. When I get reviews, I tend to write new chapters <em>much <em>more quickly... ^.^


	9. Cassa

A/N: Well, here's the next chapter. I hope to have the next few up fairly quickly, seeing that I _know_ how this thing will end now ;) And don't worry, Zelman should be showing up in the next chapter or two. After all, she's going to have to get rid of the Kowloon poison somehow, right? Please keep reading!

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><p>The next few days passed with a slowness Elizabeth had never before known. She sat in her room; she walked around her room; she slept in her room; she ate in her room. Everything she did, she did <em>in her room<em>. She was beginning to get fed up with the whole thing. While she was not in any position to demand to be be released, the sheer boredom of the place was about to drive her insane.

Finally, Cain seemed to take the hint in her biting tone when he had her lunch delivered one day. He agreed to see if Mimiko and Kotaro could visit her. Looking forward to someone who would actually talk back, unlike her reflection or the wall, she waited fairly patiently for their arrival. In fact, if she'd had any desire to think about it, her level of expectation was bordering on the end of the spectrum which included "excited puppy".

When the knock came, she hurried over and ushered the two in. Jiro, she could tell, was nearby, but had not followed them on their visit. Mimiko said that he hadn't wanted to intrude, so he'd wait further down hallway.

Elizabeth, while still not completely comfortable around the tall, dark haired vampire, felt a little bad about him just sitting out there. Kotaro, however, assured her that he would probably just hide under his hat and sleep until they were ready to go.

The afternoon went by much quicker than she had wanted, and it was getting near dark when Mimi and the boy stood to leave. However, they didn't make it to the door. Even though Elizabeth had no access to her offensive powers, she could still _sense _things. What she sensed, right before the lovely window was smashed in, made her spin in terror and pain. The wound in her shoulder seemed to burn anew, as though it were sensing its kin nearby. Sure enough, after the glass spread throughout the room, somehow missing the three of them, she saw a female vampire standing on the ledge. Darting forward, she aimed for Mimi, but Elizabeth, acting on some sort of bizarre instinct, jumped in front her as quickly as her pain would allow.

As the woman's hands settled in a tight grip around her upper arms, she saw the slight shock come over her features before the canines flashed in a brief, strange smile. Then, without much of pause at all, they were flying back out the now stark hole in the wall.

She heard the woman say, as they fell towards the ground many stories below, "Well, you aren't who I came for, but you should prove even more interesting." As the pressure from the fall built, and with no way to protect herself from it, Elizabeth blacked out before they reached the ground.

As she was swept from the room, Mimiko screamed, rushing after her new friend. However, before she had even taken two steps, strong arms wrapped around her and a voice spoke firmly in her ear, "No, Mimi!"

Struggling, she turned her head and stared into the slitted eyes of her partner. "Jiro, Cassa took Elizabeth! You have to go get her!"

"I can't do that; Cain will go after her, don't worry."

"But you _have_ to!"

"No, I have to protect Kotaro and...you." Even through her panic, she could feel the slight fight he still put up when he considered how important they apparently now were to one another.

"But...she put herself between us. She _let_ Cassa grab her. If she hadn't done that-" it was at this point that Jiro turned her in his arms so that her face was pressed into the front of his chest.

Throughout this exchange, Kotaro hadn't moved. His eyes were locked onto the broken window through which the other blond had so recently disappeared. Jiro had moved to block him slightly, even as he grabbed onto Mimiko.

As the brunette's shoulders shivered through her shock under the strong hands of the dark haired vampire, Kotaro said, quietly but resolutely, "We have to find her, Big Brother."

"Kotaro-" Jiro began, but the little boy didn't let him continue.

"We _have_ to!" Pulling his face back, blue eyes wide in his round face. "She's not got enough energy to deal with Cassa on her own. She's getting weaker, even I could tell that. Cassa isn't a nice person, Big Brother." It was at that declaration that he returned his eyes to the window. "And Elizabeth was bit by one of them...She's in pain right now. We can't just leave her."

As they had been talking, Cain and his men had come running into the room, before some had darted back out again. Before Jiro escorted Mimi out of the now windy and vampire-filled room, he heard Cain growl, as he stood glaring out the decimated window, "Cassa..."

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><p>Dun dun duuuunnnn... Well, I do like writing cliff hangers. They make you want to keep reading ^.^ Please review! I get giddy when I see new reviews, which is rather sad, really...<p> 


	10. One Final Weapon

A/N: I was on something of a roll, so here you go! Cassa is really not a very nice person, as Kotaro put it.

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><p>The next time Elizabeth opened her eyes, she saw a large, low-ceilinged room. Sprawled as she was on the wooden floor, she could tell that whatever the building had once been, it was quite old. Pushing herself up, she groaned and fell back down almost instantly. The pain in her arm was intense, more so than it had been before. Managing to turn her head in that direction, she saw that blood had seeped through the bandages and had now spread across rather a lot of her shirt.<p>

The noise and movement apparently alerted the vampire that she was awake again, or perhaps it was the terrified beating of her heart. Whatever it was that drew her attention, she approached the girl, the same slightly interested smile on her face.

Kneeling in front of her, staying a few feet away, she said, "I went looking for one Life Blood, and I found another. Although, you seem to have already been bitten by one of us, so I won't need to experiment on you with our blood quite as much. It does save time this way..."

Elizabeth, whose eyes were opening and closing much more slowly than she would have liked, kept trying to place the woman. She couldn't.

The woman must have been able to see the question in her eyes, though, for she said, "I'm Cassandra Jill Warlock...I'm sure you've heard of me."

Elizabeth knew of the Warlock house, but she could not say she knew the name of this particular vampire. The Warlocks had been a very powerful family back when she had first been bitten. In recent years, however, they had become a much quieter group, for the most part. They had many servants, but not many were turned on a regular basis anymore.

"What's your name? I know you're a Life Blood, but there seems to be some confusion as to what your name really is." she said, her voice sounding very friendly, even though Elizabeth could see the cold flatness in her dark eyes.

She didn't even try to answer, knowing her energy was now close to being exhausted. Merely keeping her eyes open was becoming a chore.

"Well, no matter," came the smooth voice of her captor. "After all, you don't need to talk and I don't need to know your name in order to see what happens to you." She seemed very chatty for being so near a Life Blood. The woman soon explained why. "I'm quite curious to see what happens to you...Whether you'll turn into one of us or die, it doesn't really matter. Either way, it will be very important information. You lot are some of the few who can kill us so effortlessly. Otherwise, it takes an Old Blood, and they are few and far between now." Elizabeth thought she was finished, but apparently not. "When you put yourself in front of Mimiko, I thought it was rather annoying. Then I smelled the Kowloon in you. I was confused for a moment, I will admit, until everything fell into place. The only thing to make sense was that you were the other Life Blood, and that you had, indeed, been bitten by one of my brethren. Quite interesting...I'm glad you gave yourself up like that, truth to tell. It was rather easy, though. For Jiro to allow something as precious as his Life Blood and The Sage, both, out of his sight, _again_...Lax. Very lax." She finally seemed ready to stop talking, which allowed the blond to focus on her pain again.

Elizabeth had not been so near death in centuries, and she was not quite sure what to do. How did one approach the afterlife when you were neither truly human nor vampire? As her eyes began to slide closed again, the woman slipped on a pair of gloves and pulled out a syringe full of blood. Keeping her eye on the now nearly comatose Life Blood, she stuck the needle into the woman's side, pushing even more of the tainted blood into her. Drawing out a second syringe, she shoved that one into her upper leg. As she reached for a third one, her victim watched her...

Elizabeth, enraged at what she was doing, sought through her body for one final burst of power. She didn't care if she stopped breathing, she only wanted to kill this horrible person who seemed to treat everything, her pain and life included, like a game. As the Life Blood felt the thrilling sense of unrestrained power flow through her, assuredly for the last time, she threw all she had into releasing it.

The water in the air all around them solidified into ice almost instantly, shooting out in spikes and jagged spears, hurtling upward and outward. As the world slipped away, she could hear the building crashing around her as the projections of frozen water pushed their way through solid wood, brick, and stone. As light sparkled off the sides of her final weapon, she drifted away, into a land of ice and snow, as she remembered it from her youth.

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><p>Review for smiles ^.^<p> 


	11. Can We Help Her Now?

A/N: Well, here's the next chapter! As I said, I know how it's going to end and we're getting close! ^.^ This chapter takes place during the same time frame as the last one. However, you get to see what the other characters are up to in this one. Enjoy!

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><p>A day passed with no sign of either Cassa or Elizabeth, which made both Kotaro and Mimiko increasingly nervous. It seemed they were dead serious about finding the other Life Blood, even though no one knew where the Kowloon had taken her. It was as though the Black Snake had just disappeared into thin air. As the hours ticked by, Kotaro became more and more insistent that something had to be done. His agitation reached the point that he left his brother sitting with Mimiko in a room in the tower. He had someone to find, and Jiro probably wouldn't want him doing it if he knew. Was he going to get in trouble later? Yes. Did that matter at the moment? No. Miss Elizabeth was very nice and she'd protected Mimi, which made her even nicer, in Kotaro's book.<p>

Following his nose and developing vampire senses, he worked his way towards the one aura that he really wanted to find. Sei had asked both Cain and Zelman to another meeting, which was a sure sign that something was going on. However, Kotaro only knew that no one was moving fast enough for his taste. Waiting outside the doors to the conference room, he tried to be as patient as possible. When the doors finally opened, revealing the red hair and eyes of the Crimson-Eyed Butcher, he pounced.

Hurrying to stand in front of him, the little blond vampire looked up at him and asked, as politely as he could, "Mr. Zelman, could you help me with something?"

His eyes widening just a little, the Old Blood squatted down so that he was on eye level with the younger Mochizuki. "What's up, kid?" he asked, his eyes inquisitive. He never seemed to feel any sort of antagonism for the boy, even though they were from two completely different blood lines.

"I want to go find Miss Elizabeth, but Jiro won't help me. Will you? Please?" he looked as pathetic as he knew how. He really did want to find her, but he knew he couldn't go on his own. Mr. Zelman had helped him find Mimi last time. Surely he could help him again.

"Not moving fast enough, huh?" asked the older vampire, smirking as he stood back up. "Unfortunately, we wouldn't be doing much good without some idea of where the snake took her."

"But there has to be some way to find her!" Kotaro was not about to give up that easily. "Couldn't we just go and out and look?"

"We could, but that wouldn't do us much good. The witch knows how to mask her presence, for the most part, and the Life Blood isn't strong enough right now to be putting out much of anything. We'd be hunting blind." Zelman could tell that Kotaro was not hearing what he wanted.

However, before the boy could ask again, the aura of his big brother could be felt approaching rapidly. The little boy tensed, knowing what was coming. As the dark face of the older Mochizuki came into view, Zelman stepped slightly in front of the blond. No need for a scolding in the hallway, after all. Mimi was hurrying along behind Jiro, obviously worried about Kotaro, as well.

"Kotaro!" Jiro bit out when he saw the blue eyes peeking out from behind the Old Blood. "What in the world were you thinking! You promised after last time-"

He was stopped abruptly by the boy exclaiming, tears in his eyes, "You didn't want to help me find Miss Elizabeth, so I went to ask someone else!"

As Jiro opened his mouth, everyone froze, even Mimi. A huge surge of power swept over the building, leaving a wake of cold air behind. They all rushed to the elevator and took it to the roof. Whatever had caused the power surge had been massive. Reaching the top of the building, they looked around, Mimi pointing in one direction, her eyes wide. The others turned to see what looked like a massive rock crystal made entirely of ice jutting into the sky.

Kotaro's comment was, "Can we go help her now?"

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><p>It didn't take long for them to reach the scene of destruction, which was still partially encased in ice. Zelman melted them a way in, working towards the epicenter of the ice spikes. Finally reaching what looked to be the right spot, Cain hurried towards the crumpled body of the Englishwoman. As they all gathered around, Kotaro pointed at her shoulder, where they could see something moving under the bloody shirt.<p>

Cain, calling one of his humans over, told him to cut around the area of the wound so they could see what was going on. As the fabric was peeled away, all vampires keeping back, they could see something oozing and bubbling in the bite itself. It was Mimi who noticed the small circle of blood on her side, and she reached forward to draw her shirt up. In the middle of the pale skin sat another infected spot, smaller than the first, but also seeping the poison.

Kotaro, after a minute or two, looked up at Zelman and said, "Can you burn it away since it's on the surface?"

The red head glanced down at the boy, blinking a bit, then nodding slowly, "I suppose so...I've never done that before, though."

"Do you think you could? Please? She protected Mimi..." Even Kotaro could sense how faint the woman's life was. She was so near death, he could almost smell it.

Kneeling down so he could aim better, the Old Blood focused first on her shoulder. Allowing a small ball of fire to touch the bubbling infection, he watched as the wound hissed and the skin turned a deep red. He didn't look at her face, but she didn't move, which meant she was probably beyond feeling what he was doing to her.

After the shoulder was cauterized, which took several minutes, he moved on to the second wound. This one was newer, but there was quite a bit of poison in it, as well. If he had to guess what had happened, he'd bet on a needle...Cassa really was a disgusting person, he grumbled to himself. As the second spot finished he moved to back away, but then froze. Moving closer, being careful not to get too near the blood stained pieces of shirt, he looked more closely at the rest of her body. He had the distinct impression that he wasn't done yet.

There it was. The blood wasn't as noticeable against her black skirt, but he had caught a hint of it in the air. Motioning for Mimi to come around, he pointed to the spot, which was half way up her upper leg. The young Life Blood carefully pulled the skirt up, revealing a slender, pale leg as she did so. Reaching the spot of the second needle injection, Zelman found himself wanting to kill Cassa multiple times...How could she do this to anyone? Even he wasn't this cruel...

After he was finished and Mimi had wrapped her in a blanket, one of Cain's humans reached down and picked her up. As the man adjusted her in his arms so that he wouldn't drop her, the Life Blood's eyes blink open for a moment, although Zelman could tell she wasn't really awake or present. Her dark blue eyes moved around for a moment or two, resting on his before they slid shut once more.

As the human walked away with her, Zelman Clock found himself fighting the strangest urge to go take her from him, hissing a warning so the man wouldn't touch her again. Shaking his head, he followed Kotaro out of the building, the little blond thanking him the whole way. The Old Blood smiled down at the exuberant boy. I must be getting soft in my old age, he thought to himself.

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><p>Review, please and thank you ^.^<p> 


	12. Winter in Norway

A/N: This is another fairly short one, but I wanted it to stand alone. This is what is going on inside Elizabeth's mind as the others are searching for her. The wound is bubbling in the last chapter because Klara is forcing the poison to the surface. Enjoy!

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><p>Winter in the far northern reaches of Norway was both beautiful and harsh. After leaving the pain and weakness behind, she found herself there once again. Dressed as she had once been, she felt the softness of her favorite crystal blue gown and the warmth of the white, fur-lined cloak she'd used innumerable times. Walking through the falling snow on a crisp December morning had been one of Elizabeth's favorite pastimes after arriving there in the early 1600s. Very few people would travel that far north without a reason, which made it an ideal place for a vampire and his Life Blood to live. After all, he only took blood from her, and the humans who lived near their castle provided them with plenty of game in exchange for the protection he offered them. During the century or so that she lived with them, she experienced a charmed life. However, she had also witnessed, first hand, what a loving Life Blood relationship looked like. Leidolf cherished Klara in a way which Elizabeth couldn't help but envy. He was protective, but not in a obsessive or oppressive way. When they would go on walks together, he would keep his presence close to her, so that she knew he was there. Sometimes, when he thought no one was looking, he'd even hold her hand.<p>

Klara had shared some of her own past with the younger Life Blood, and it had not been a pretty one. Sold as a young girl to an inn keeper, she ran errands and cleaned the inn until she reached her mid-teens. That was when the innkeep's son thought it would be fun to rape her. She had fought back, however, hitting the young man on the head with a piece of firewood. When she had gone for help, no one believed her, saying that she was nothing but a slave. In return for attempting to protect herself, she was beaten, badly, and tied to a tree, her arms strung high over her head. However, while she hung there, her arms pulled tight, half conscious, a hungry vampire stumbled upon her. Taking what he could get, he bit into her arm, and almost instantly dissolved away into ashes and screams.

The townspeople did not return for her until several days later. They were expecting her to be dead, but what they found shocked them. She was still alive, staring at them from tired eyes, pleading through her parched lips for water. Terrified that they had a witch among them, they dragged her to a nearby river, where they attempted to drown her. When that didn't work, they built a bonfire, and threw her in. She ran from it, her hair and dress burning, but her skin healing before their very eyes. She ran into the woods, not stopping until her legs collapsed under her. She lived like that, hiding in the forests, for several years, nearly a decade, before she stumbled across the path of Leidolf. One of his greedy young men had bitten her before the Norwegian could stop it. Bowing to apologize, he'd looked into her blue eyes for the first time and, his words were, _he just knew_. Drawing her forward, he bit into her neck, and the rest was history.

As Elizabeth stood there, remembering the happy couple, she saw, in the distance, what could only be a mirage. Leidolf and Klara appeared to be walking towards her, but she hadn't seem them in over two hundred years. Sadly, she thought they'd probably been killed at some point during the turbulent years of the World Wars. The beautiful face of the French Life Blood smiled at her as she drew closer, however, almost making Elizabeth believe that what she was seeing truly was real.

The older woman stretched our her hand as Leidolf stood back a bit to allow her room. As Klara called on her own powers over water, Elizabeth could feel the infection in her shoulder, and now her side and leg, begin to tingle. Klara met her eyes and said in her softly accented voice, "I'm calling the poison to the surface, my dear, but I cannot destroy it. You still have much life left to live...Don't give up just yet."

As the wintry world of the past faded away, she reached out towards her old friends. "Wait! I want to stay with you!"

"He's waiting for you...Don't lose him now," were the only words she could hear as the white disappeared into darkness.

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><p>Reviews make me want to keep writing...Just saying ;)<p> 


	13. A Few Tears

A/N: Well, I was hoping to get this one slightly longer, but it just didn't work out that way...Even so, I think I'll be able to finish this story up in only a few more chapters ^.^ Aren't you all proud of me? I already know what's coming, and it makes me want to dance around like a giddy six year old...which is quite disturbing and rather sad *sweatdrop*. Please enjoy!

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><p>Returning to the living was not an especially pleasant sensation. She missed the feel of the fur against her face and the wind blowing her hair. Leaving that behind, she found herself blinking stiffly back into reality. It took a moment or two for her eyes to finish adjusting to the idea of "focus" again. However, when they did, she was a bit surprised by what she saw.<p>

Kotaro had apparently been sitting next to her bed when he'd fallen asleep, for his head was pillowed on his arms where they lay beside her. Across the room, Mimi was curled up in a chair while Jiro had propped himself near her on the floor. His hat was beside him and the Life Blood's hand was curled slightly into his dark hair. Whatever the issue between them was, they seemed unable to fight the fact of what they were.

As sore as she was physically, Elizabeth didn't feel the gnawing, biting pain of her wound anymore. Looking down, she saw something which made her eyes widen just a tad. There, on her left shoulder, was a small and tidy scar. The bite itself was no longer visible, only the residual redness of what looked like a burn. Klara hadn't done that, she was certain. In fact, if she hadn't known any better, she would have said it was Zelman's doing. She couldn't think of anyone else who could do something like that. Most human doctors had no way of being that precise with their tools.

Deciding to ask someone about it later, she attempted to use her powers, hoping they were back. Indeed they were, albeit still somewhat weak, as was she. Turning her eyes towards the sleeping boy, she allowed a little rain cloud to gather over his head, dripping moisture down onto him. Kotaro blinked a few times before seeing that she was awake.

"Elizabeth!" he yelled, jumping out of his chair and bouncing up and down. "You're awake!"

At his exultant exclamation, Mimi's head came up, although she didn't move her hand from Jiro's hair until he too moved. Seeming to realize where her hand was, she snatched it back as though it had burned her. Face now a startling shade of red, she hurried towards the older woman.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, moving around the still dancing boy. "We were all so worried."

"Well..." answered Elizabeth, moving her now healed shoulder, "I don't seem to have too many issues anymore. What happened after I tried to kill that witch?"

"You made a HUGE ice spike and we saw it and found you!" Kotaro said, a grin spreading across his cheery features. "I knew we would find you!"

"I'm glad you did," she said back, her eyes smiling along with her mouth. The little boy was just too cute when he was excited. "Who did this?" she asked Mimiko, pointing towards her left shoulder.

"Oh, Mr. Zelman did," said the girl, as Jiro came up behind her. His dark eyes were on his Life Blood, whose heartbeat had sped up a bit when he approached.

"Did he?" was Elizabeth's response as she watched the new partners act all awkward and unsure. Having Kotaro around the entire time probably wasn't helping matters any, either...Oh well, she mentally shrugged, that's for them to work through.

A few minutes later the other three left her to relax, and she soon found herself staring at the ceiling. She was in a different room from before, which made sense. After all, the previous one had been so _very_ secure. Finally deciding she couldn't take lying in that empty room any longer, she pushed herself up and maneuvered her way slowly into the outer room. This room had a window also, but it was smaller and a little higher up then the other. Curling up on the couch, she stared out at the late afternoon sun. The color was so pretty, but it reminded her of other days and older times.

Sighing softly, remembering the smiling faces of Klara and Leidolf, she felt a few tears prick the back of her eyes. Knowing no one was nearby, she allowed the drops to fall down her cheeks to be soaked up by the pillow under her head. The woman had said he was waiting...But he wasn't. He'd never been waiting for her. She was all alone again, even though she'd been _so _close to walking away from it all. Sniffling just a little, she closed her eyes, not bothering to wipe the tears off her face. Who was going to see them, anyway? she thought to herself. The sun lit her in its soft glow as she returned to dreams.

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><p>Reviews! Yes, those things where you tell me what you think...Cause I know you're all out there ;)<p> 


	14. What a Way to Die

A/N: We are nearing the end! I think I should be able to finish this up in one more chapter ^.^ Please read and enjoy! I don't own anybody but Elizabeth, although I would very much _like_ to own Zelman, but then, I would have to fight his fangirls for him...I'll have to think about that. LoL!

And yes, these are short, but I can't help it! They come in bursts, not long, prolonged, storms...

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><p>Zelman Clock was not having a good day. His skin kept prickling, which made him itchy, and his teeth were aching but wouldn't let him feed. Maybe I'm just getting old, he thought to himself as he sprawled on the couch in the basement room he had long since claimed as his. It didn't matter <em>who <em>he tried to bite, they just wouldn't drop down into feeding fangs! He did _not_ want to resort to drinking out of a little plastic bag... Disgusted, he threw himself out of his seat and stalked around the room a few times. He couldn't come up with any reason for why such a thing was happening. Also, every time Sayuka got _near_ him, meaning still a good dozen feet away, he wanted to shrink from her. The secretary wasn't sure what was going on, but neither was he, so that made them even. He was getting hungry, for the love of all that was bloody and vicious! Slamming his hand into the stone wall, he hissed to himself as the scrapes healed.

Deciding that a walk would probably be a good idea, he slammed several doors as he worked his way outside. Now, that wasn't normal for him, but it also let his men know to stay _out of his way_. Sayuka tried to talk to him as he passed her office, but he just ignored her. There was something about her voice, and her smell, and her very, well, _being_, that was just setting him off.

Taking a deep breath of the night air, he shoved his hands into his pockets and strolled along, trying to not focus on the tingling in his mouth. As he meandered, he caught sight of Sei's tower in the distance. Wondering if Kotaro was still up and about, he made the snap decision to drop in. The tension between the Silver Blade and the Compromiser was almost tangible, but it would at least be something to take his mind off his own issues.

Hurrying in that direction, he soon reached the front doors, which parted before him without any resistance. Obviously, Sei had felt him coming. While he and the reincarnation didn't see eye to eye on most things, the other vampire wasn't above letting him in from time to time.

As he worked his way through the upper hallways of the massive building, he kept hearing whispers drifting towards him. Shaking his head a bit, he paused to see if he could still hear them. So faint, almost a hum or a buzz, they slipped through the air like ghosts. Getting curious, he slowly followed them, wondering if he could find their source. After a few minutes, the sounds became slightly more distinct, and he felt a shock go through him. They weren't whispers, but a soft voice singing. Finally grasping the sound, he hurried along a bit faster. Rounding corner after corner, climbing a few flights of stairs, and passing innumerable doors led him to a floor nearly at the top of the tower. Looking around, the voice led him to a door halfway down the hallway. Upon nearing it, he recognized the presence within as the Life Blood they had just saved. The voice, however, didn't sound like hers...

Nudging the door open carefully, just in case she hadn't sensed him coming, he poked his head through and searched for what was making the noise. Why it intrigued him so much, he didn't know. He merely wanted to find out where it was coming from.

What met his eyes froze him to the spot, for he had not been expecting it. The blond Life Blood was laying on the room's couch, one leg tucked up a bit towards her middle. Her hands were hidden under a pillow, which her hair seemed to be swallowing. The soft sound of her breathing was nearly drowned in the aria which was pouring from her.

How in the world was she doing that? he wondered to himself, managing to get a little closer. Was she hiding some new form of radio or something? Reaching the couch arm and looking straight down at her face, he couldn't help but notice how long her eyelashes were or that she slept with her mouth slightly open.

What quickly caught and held his attention, however, was the pulse which was beating calmly away in her neck. The tank top they had put her in also showcased his handiwork with the Kowloon bite. Leaning down a bit, he took a closer look at it. He was distracted almost instantly by the pulse and the singing and the _smell_...Her blood smelled sweet. Sweeter than the coke he had had become so fond of. Sweeter than the baked goods and candy he had eaten as a child in Poland.

Walking around, he squatted in front of her. Obviously, she was still working on regaining the energy she had lost over the past few days. He had the distinct impression that she wasn't usually this easy to approach.

His teeth,though, were working very hard at distracting him, which was making him slightly frustrated. How did one tell ones teeth that, no, they couldn't bite this particular person. Why? _Because her blood would kill him_. However, even knowing that, he was quickly becoming mesmerized by the flow of blood at her neck. It was a strong pulse, with a steady beat. And the singing wasn't helping. He still couldn't tell where the bloody music was coming from! Even as he fought his own mind, he found himself drawing nearer and nearer to the pale expanse of her throat.

What a way to die, was his last coherent thought before his feeding fangs descended and his mouth latched onto the four hundred and fifty year old Life Blood's slender neck.

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><p>Reviews! Only one more to go!<p> 


	15. The Life Blood's Vampire

A/N: Well, here it is! The much requested last chapter ^.^ This story has been a very interesting to write, let me tell you. I haven't decided yet if I'll do a sequel...It just doesn't seem necessary at this point. Anyway, please enjoy! And, before anyone asks, no, Cassa isn't dead...That would have been slightly melodramatic. I think it's only fair for Jiro to kill her. Or maybe Kotaro, one day. Anyway, read!

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><p>When she had fallen back asleep, curled up on the couch, she'd been hoping to reenter the snowy landscape where she had so recently reunited with old friends. However, such was not the case. In fact, she sunk into nothing but a dreamless sleep.<p>

She had not felt Zelman's approach at all, or if she had, her body had not felt the need to tell her about it. As it was, her first inkling that she had company came when she felt his teeth pierce her neck. Waking with a jerk, her hands flew out from under the pillow and grabbed his head. Through the haze that was the strange pleasure-pain of the bite, she managed to realize the hair, poking out from around his hat, was red. _Zelman!_ her mind screeched, proving just how astonishing the situation was.

She could feel his mouth working on her throat as he pulled her blood into himself. All the sensations she was experiencing were almost too much for her to handle. Her eyes, which had flown open, slid shut as her hands, originally intending to push him away, attempted to draw him nearer. She had no idea what was going on, but she wasn't about to complain. For once, the bite of a vampire was not sending painful fire across her skin. She felt warm and needed.

A little while later, when she was floating on the aftershocks of the bite, he pulled his teeth from her. However, he didn't retreat very far. His eyes were locked on her neck as he watched the wound slowly heal. However, the twin holes, small and perfectly round, did not disappear after they had closed. Instead, they remained as a permanent warning that she was his. Leaning back down for a moment, he kissed them softly before turning his head to look at his Life Blood. His mind uttered one word as he saw her face: _Mine_.

When his teeth had detached from her, she had seen his aura spike higher than she was sure it had ever been before. Large and imposing, the red which tinted its edges had glowed white. Even after the initial spike had lessened, the white remained, showing up as veins in portions of his aura.

His eyes met hers, which were locked on his face. Her breathing was slowly returning to normal, although her heart was still beating somewhat erratically. Elizabeth realized as he drew nearer that she still had her hands attached to his head. Sliding them down a bit, she pushed the stocking cap off. A part of her wanted to feel his hair between her fingers and it was in the way. He chuckled at the move, right before his lips descended on hers. She had to wonder, as his tongue slid along her bottom lip, if he had kissed very many women. He didn't seem the kind...

However, her thoughts slowly drifted away as the kiss deepened. When they parted for her to breath, she found herself seated in his lap. He had managed to kiss her nearly senseless while lifting her and climbing onto the couch...She could only shake her head as he nuzzled under chin.

As the reality of what had just happened hit her, she murmured, "So it was you, even then..."

"Even when?" came his question as he kissed his mark on her neck again.

"I saw you once, before coming here," she replied, shifting slightly to get a bit more comfortable in his lap.

"When? I don't remember ever having met you before..."

"It was the late 1500s, only a decade or two after I'd been bit in London. You were apparently fighting in some battle, and I felt you coming. I hadn't learned to defend myself yet, so I reacted on instinct..."

"What'd you do?"

"I jumped in lake..."

He let out an honest to goodness laugh, which made his face much more approachable. She reached up and ran her fingers over his mouth as the laugh died away.

Leaning into his chest, she sighed. "I wonder what would have happened if I hadn't done that... Speaking of which, why in the world did you bite me? It could have killed you!"

Now it was his turn to sigh, as he shook his head. "I haven't been able to bite anyone since we found you encased in ice. My teeth have been aching, which means I'm hungry, but they wouldn't descend so that I could actually _bite _someone. And I _refuse_ to drink my blood out of a bag."

She smiled at his forcefulness. "You _are_ a little old to really appreciate that, I'm sure."

He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, the red still a little brighter than normal due to her blood. "I wandered over here to see Kotaro, but I got distracted. Did you know you're blood sings?"

"It does?" she asked, tilting her head a bit, listening to see if she could hear any singing. "I don't hear anything."

His forehead creasing slightly, he too sat and listened. The song wasn't as loud as it had been, but the melody was still quite discernible. Then the proverbial light bulb seemed to switch on over his head. "Well, that makes sense now," he muttered, turning his face away slightly.

"What does?" Elizabeth said, a little confused.

"Your blood was trying to get my attention. Although, why it should happen now and not before is-" he came to a halt as his face got pensive. "Your eyes," he said simply after a moment or two. Turning back towards her, he stared into them. "I'd never seen your eyes before we rescued you."

"I don't remember seeing any of you there...how would you have seen my eyes?" she asked, even more confused.

"When one of Cain's humans picked you up to bring you back here, you opened your eyes for a moment. It was probably just a reflex, because nobody was at home. However, that was the first time I've ever seen your eyes."

Drawing a hand up, she tapped her chin for a moment as she thought. Finally, Elizabeth recalled what Klara had told her all those centuries ago. Snapping her fingers, she met his gaze again. One of his eyebrows was up as he waited for her to explain. "That's what Leidolf told Klara!"

Now it was Zelman's turn to be confused. "Leidolf? As in the Ice King?"

Elizabeth nodded, thinking back over the conversation between her and the other Life Blood. "He was in France when he met Klara, his Life Blood, for the first time. She wasn't paying attention and one of his younger vampires attacked her before Leidolf could stop him. There's something about an unclaimed Life Blood that seems to set younger vampires off. Anyway," she said waving a hand in the air before continuing, "his comment to her was that when he looked into her eyes he just knew."

"Knew what?"

"I don't know if he meant that his mind knew what she was to him, or if he meant that his body knew it could bite her safely. Either way, when he bit her, she didn't feel pain like she had before..."

"Did you?" Zelman asked, still cradling her on his lap, as he watched her face.

"Feel pain when you bit me?" At his nod of affirmation, she shook her head, saying honestly, "That was the first time it hasn't hurt. Now I understand why some people become addicted to a vampire's bite..."

He chuckled as he drew her chin towards him. Kissing one corner of her mouth and then the other, he finally settled his lips fully on hers. The long, drugging kiss felt like it would go on forever. However, it ended all too soon. After he drew away, he said, "I think I'm already addicted to you, and it only took one bite."

Laughing she did something that made him start: she kissed the tip of his nose. "You realize what this means, don't you?"

He shook his head, asking, "What?"

"Miss Shiromine is going to need to find another job." Elizabeth's expression was dead serious.

He laughed again, before hovering over her mouth with his own. "Jealous?" he asked, before pecking her lips lightly.

The temperature in the room dropped a good ten degrees as she held his head back so she could look him straight in the eye, waiting.

Raising his right hand, he traced a finger down her face, then her neck, stopping over the mark his bite had left behind. "She's been getting on my nerves anyway recently."

The temperature did not rise, nor did her expression lighten.

Leaning forward, even as her hands tried to keep him back, he used the same hand to pull her face in to meet his. Being perfectly serious, he said, "You are the only person I will ever drink from again, Elizabeth. And don't worry, Sayuka will not be working for me anymore. You've waited too long, as I have I."

When he was finished declaring himself, his eyes locked on her the entire time, she allowed the temperature to go back to normal. Then _he _made it go warmer and warmer...Or maybe that was just the kiss. She couldn't tell, nor did she care. Her arms were now wrapped around his neck as he showed her just how much she meant to him.

_THE END_

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><p>And so, it is done. Please give me reviews ^.^ This is the first time I've finished a story on here that has multiple chapters to it... Thanks so much for all those who read this!<em><br>_


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